Filters are used to remove particulates suspended or otherwise present in flowing fluids. Most commonly with respect to liquids, a porous medium filter is utilized, wherein the porous medium, as for example a paper material, allows the liquid molecules to flow through the pores freely, but particles carried by the liquid are detained, as they are sized too large to pass through the pores. While porous medium filters work well, problematically, such a filter can become burdened with particles resulting in sluggish liquid flow, high pressure differential thereacross, as well as necessity to remove and replace the porous medium, if not the entire filter.
What remains needed in the art is a fluid filter that reduces fluid pressure drop thereacross and performs filtering for a lengthy time without clogging as compared with a conventional porous medium filter; further, it would be very advantageous if such an improved fluid filter could be somehow integrally packaged with a fluid flow control valve, as for example a barrel valve, in order to reduce over-all packaging requirements. In this regard, a conventional barrel valve is typically configured with an outer valve housing and an inner valve barrel rotatively disposed within the outer valve housing, wherein the inner valve barrel is molded with open cavities or formed of solid metal with a machined passage for selectively communicating (based upon rotative position of the inner valve barrel with respect to the outer valve housing) with inlet and outlet valve ports of the outer valve housing.